Cisco is bringing its newly-acquired customer engagement tool from IMImobile to the Webex Contact Center, the company announced on Wednesday. With integration, Cisco aims to provide a more robust customer experience as a service (CXaaS) offering.
The combined service brings together multiple technologies, Cisco said, artificial intelligence, experience management, collaboration tools, omnichannel capabilities and programmability for optimization.
Cisco acquired London-based IMImobile in December for $ 730 million. The company’s devices enable customer engagement across various devices, social media channels, messaging and voice applications.
With IMImobile’s customer interaction tool, Cisco said its customers “will be able to understand and act on all the drivers of the customer experience – beyond the contact center walls.”
Overview
SAN JOSE, Calif. – February 19, 2021 – Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) Today Cisco has acquired IMImobile PLC, a leading provider of cloud communications software and services that manage business-critical customer interactions at scale, based in the United Kingdom.
In working with a business, customers want the ability to interact while they shop, so they can ask questions or engage to receive support. One that allows them to get service their way – to connect how and when they want, with options for intelligent self-service or a context-aware connection with agents empowered with the tools at hand to meet their needs. This is the future of customer experience – one that anticipates their future needs and proactively addresses them.
IMImobile, like Cisco, recognizes that customer experience is a key competitive advantage for consumer businesses. When enterprises can stay constantly connected to their customers at every touchpoint on every channel, they can create delightful, engaging experiences.
By combining IMImobile solution functionality with the All New Webex Contact Center, Cisco will be able to provide a robust Customer Experience as a Service (CXaaS) offer. This will give organizations the ability to provide delightful customer experiences across the entire life cycle, leveraging technology including artificial intelligence, experience management, collaboration tools, omnichannel capabilities, and programmability for customization.
Furthermore, Cisco will be able to extend journey analytics and customer interaction capabilities beyond the Contact Center and be able to provide a comprehensive set of popular channels including WhatsApp, Google RCS and Apple Business Chat. Every touchpoint on every channel will be an opportunity to deliver rich, engaging intuitive experiences where every interaction matters.
This acquisition reflects Cisco’s continued investment in building a technology stack to deliver on this CXaaS vision. In 2019, Cisco added an experience management solution that provides customer sentiment analytics to improve the understanding, analysis, and optimization of customer journeys and natural language understanding (NLU) capabilities that enable AI-powered customer interactions through the CloudCherry (Oct 2019) and Voicea (Sept 2019) acquisitions. With the completion of the IMImobile Offer, Cisco will further progress its vision of offering a comprehensive CXaaS offering.
Customer Experience
IMImobile customers should continue to use the existing process for support on installed IMImobile products. Cisco will notify you in advance of any change to the support process.
Cisco customers should continue to use the Cisco Technical Assistance Center (TAC) for technical support on Cisco products. For more information about opening a technical support case and for regional TAC telephone numbers, refer to Cisco Worldwide Support Contacts.
Customer & Partners
IMImobile Customers and Partners:
If you are an existing customer or partner of IMImobile and have questions about your product or service, please continue to contact your existing IMImobile representative.
Cisco Customers and Partners:
If you are an existing customer or partner of Cisco and have questions about your product or services, please continue to contact your existing Cisco representative.
FAQs
Q: Can you explain IMImobile’s offering?
A: IMImobile offers software and services which allow enterprises to stay constantly connected to their customers. IMImobile’s services enable enterprises to offer their customers enhanced interactive experiences, for example:
- IMImobile orchestrates and integrates interactions with enterprise systems, on an easy-to-use enterprise CPaaS cloud communication platform;
- IMImobile automates interactions to improve experiences, saving time and reducing cost;
- IMImobile allows enterprises to monitor their interactions with customers to ensure seamless engagement; and
- IMImobile provides omni-channel programmability that comes in the form of APIs as well as low-code flow-builders enabling businesses to rapidly and painlessly change the workflows that allow them to serve and interact with their customers.
Q: What is Enterprise CPaaS (Communication Platform as a Service)?
A: Enterprise CPaaS allows enterprise developers to meet the needs of customers and end users who want specialized experiences for specific problems. Oftentimes, these specialized experiences are designed for very specific personas. IMImobile’s programmable workflows will allow enterprise developers to offer tailored specialized experiences powered by Cisco’s underlying video, audio, and collaboration technologies to customers without having to rebuild every time.
Q: Why is now the right time to acquire IMImobile?
A: Customer expectations are rising. In a competitive market, businesses now compete not only on products and services, but also on the quality of the interactive experience they offer their customers. Cisco’s vision is to create a comprehensive Customer Experience as a Service (“CXaaS”) offer for customers, offering a platform to provide consistently enjoyable customer experiences
About imimobile
imimobile was founded in 2000 at the start of the mobile internet era and has, since foundation, delivered two-way customer interactions at scale. It’s in our DNA.
Over the years, we have worked with many large enterprises across different industries to help them build better customer experiences. This has shaped our mission, vision, and our product set.
Today, our increasingly digital, always-on world is transforming the way companies connect to customers on a daily basis. Customers now have the ability to control who they interact with, when, and over what channels, with just a click.
So, we’re creating a world where businesses can stay constantly connected to their customers. Where every touchpoint, on every channel, is an opportunity to deliver rich, engaging, intuitive experiences. A world where every interaction matters.
imimobile has global offices across the UK, USA, Canada, India and South Africa and was acquired by Cisco in February 2021.
About Cisco
Cisco helps seize the opportunities of tomorrow by proving that amazing things can happen when you connect the unconnected. An integral part of our DNA is creating long-lasting customer partnerships, working together to identify our customers’ needs and provide solutions that fuel their success.
We have preserved this keen focus on solving business challenges since our founding in 1984. Len Bosack and wife Sandy Lerner, both working for Stanford University, wanted to email each other from their respective offices, but technological shortcomings did not allow such communication. A technology had to be invented to deal with disparate local area protocols, and as a result of solving their challenge, the multiprotocol router was born.